More than seventy of the best-known songs of Georges Brassens with videos of Brassens performing the songs and English translations - also textual and biographical comments

Saturday, 8 November 2008

LES TROMPETTES DE LA RENOMMÉE A strong No to putting publicity above privacy

This is Brassens at his most shocking and offensive and he is deliberately so. Apparently he had been advised (in 1960) to liven up his image in keeping with an age that was beginning to swing. One suggestion was that he should revive public attention by leaking spicy details of his private life. Brassens thinks that this would be nasty not only for him but for those who have shared his life. In each verse he mercilessly piles on the detail of the squalid, destructive role others would have him play. He refuses to change and says he will just stand still on stage and play his guitar as always. He calls this scratching his stomach to show his disregard for presentation. If the public do not want this, he will pack it all in and rest peacefully on his laurels, which in his case is not a laurel wreath but the solitary laurel sprig he believes he has earned.
Brassens chooses the winged goddess “La Renomée” for his theme, because of the aspect of fame that she represents. From his reading of Virgil, Brassens knew the goddess, Fama, was conceived by her mother, the Earth, out of revenge against the gods. She is a gigantic, grotesque monster, possessing countless tongues, ears and also mouths from which she sounds forth her trumpets.

Je vivais à l'écart de la
place publique,

Serein, contemplatif,
ténébreux, bucolique... (1)

Refusant d'acquitter la
rançon de la gloir',

Sur mon brin de laurier je
dormais comme un loir. (2)

Les gens de bon conseil
ont su me fair' comprendre

Qu'à l'homme de la ru'
j'avais des compt's à rendre

Et que, sous peine de
choir dans un oubli complet,

J' devais mettre au grand
jour tous mes petits secrets.

{Refrain:}

Trompettes(3)

De la Renommée,(4)

Vous êtes

Bien mal embouchées !

Manquant à la pudeur la
plus élémentaire,

Dois-je, pour les besoins
d' la caus' publicitaire,

Divulguer avec qui, et
dans quell' position

Je plonge dans le stupre
et la fornication?

Si je publi' des noms,
combien de Pénélopes(5)

Passeront illico pour de
fieffé's salopes,

Combien de bons amis me
r'gard'ront de travers,

Combien je recevrai de
coups de revolver!

{Refrain:}

Trompettes

De la Renommée,

Vous êtes

Bien mal embouchées !

Brassens omits this next verse in the video I have posted

A toute exhibition, ma
nature est rétive,

Souffrant d'un' modesti'
quasiment maladive,

Je ne fais voir mes
organes procréateurs

A personne, excepté mes
femm's et mes docteurs.

Dois-je, pour défrayer la
chroniqu' (6) des scandales,

Battre l' tambour (7) avec
mes parti's génitales,

Dois-je les arborer plus
ostensiblement,

Comme un enfant de chœur
porte un saint sacrement ?

{Refrain:}

Trompettes

De la Renommée,

Vous êtes

Bien mal embouchées !

Une femme du monde, et qui
souvent me laisse

Fair' mes quat' voluptés
(8) dans ses quartiers d' noblesse,

M'a sournois'ment passé,
sur son divan de soi',

Des parasit's du plus bas
étage qui soit...

Sous prétexte de bruit,
sous couleur de réclame,

Ai-j' le droit de ternir
l'honneur de cette dame

En criant sur les toits,
et sur l'air des lampions (9) :

" Madame la marquis'
m'a foutu des morpions ! " ? (10)

{Refrain:}

Trompettes

De la Renommée,

Vous êtes

Bien mal embouchées !

Le ciel en soit loué, je
vis en bonne entente

Avec le Pèr' Duval, (11)
la calotte chantante,

Lui, le catéchumène,(12)
et moi, l'énergumèn',

Il me laisse dire « merd',
je lui laiss' dire amen,

En accord avec lui,
dois-je écrir' dans la presse

Qu'un soir je l'ai surpris
aux genoux d' ma maîtresse,

Chantant la mélopé' d'une
voix qui susurre, (13)

Tandis qu'ell' lui
cherchait des poux dans la tonsure ? (14)

{Refrain:}

Trompettes

De la Renommée,

Vous êtes

Bien mal embouchées !

Avec qui, ventrebleu !
faut-il que je couche

Pour fair' parler un peu
la déesse aux cent bouches ?

Faut-il qu'un' femme
célèbre, une étoile, une star, (15)

Vienn' prendre entre mes
bras la plac' de ma guitar' ?

Pour exciter le peuple et
les folliculaires,

Qui'est-c' qui veut me
prêter sa croupe populaire,

Qui'est-c' qui veut m'
laisser faire, in naturalibus,

Un p'tit peu d'alpinism'
sur son mont de Vénus ?

{Refrain:}

Trompettes

De la Renommée,

Vous êtes

Bien mal embouchées !

Sonneraient-ell's plus
fort, ces divines trompettes,

Si, comm' tout un chacun,
j'étais un peu tapette, (16)

Si je me déhanchais comme
une demoiselle

Et prenais tout à coup des
allur's de gazelle?

Mais je ne sache pas qu'ça
profite à ces drôles

De jouer le jeu d' l'amour
en inversant les rôles,

Qu'ça confère à ma gloire
un' onc' de plus-valu', (17)

Le crim' pédérastique,(18) aujourd'hui, ne pai' plus.

{Refrain:}

Trompettes

De la Renommée,

Vous êtes

Bien mal embouchées !

Après c'tour d'horizon des
mille et un' recettes

Qui vous val'nt à coup sûr
les honneurs des gazettes,

J'aime mieux m'en tenir à
ma premièr' façon

Et me gratter le ventre en
chantant des chansons.

Si le public en veut, je
les sors dare-dare,

S'il n'en veut pas je les
remets dans ma guitare,

Refusant d'acquitter la
rançon de la gloir',

Sur mon brin de laurier je
m'endors comme un loir.

{Refrain:}

Trompettes

De la Renommée,

Vous êtes

Bien mal embouchées !

I used to live well away from the public eye

Serene, contemplative, sombre and

bucolic

Refusing to hand over the ransom for fame

Upon my laurel sprig, I slept like a dormouse.

People of good counsel managed to make me see

That to the man in the street, I’d some debts to pay

And, for fear of falling in complete oblivion,

I must freely reveal all my little secrets

{Refrain:}

Trumpets of

The Goddess “Fame”,

You are

So badly out of tune!

Flouting the most elementary modesty

Must I, for the needs of agents of publicity,

Divulge with whom and in what exact position

I plunge in debauchery and fornication?

If I publish names, how many Penelopes

Will be seen straightaway as the most arrant whores

How many valued friends will look at me askance

How many revolver shots will I be hit by!

{Refrain:}

Trumpets of

The Goddess “Fame”,

You are

So badly out of tune!

At all public display my heart feels uneasy,

Suff’ring from modesty that’s almost unhealthy.

I do not reveal my reproductive organs

To anyone, except my women and my doctors.

Must I, to be headline news in gossip columns,

Drum up attention with my genital parts.

Must I raise them on high more ostensibly

As a choir boy carries the holy sacrament.

{Refrain:}

Trumpets of

The Goddess “Fame”,

You are

So badly out of tune!

A society woman of, who often gives me

Free rein to hot delights in her noble quarters

Slyly passed on to me, on her divan of silk,

Some parasites of the basest kind possible.

Under the pretext of sensation, under the heading of publicity

Have I the right to tarnish the honour of this lady?

By shouting from the rooftops and chanting the catchphrase

“The Marchioness has infected me with crabs”.

{Refrain:}

Trumpets of

The Goddess “Fame”,

You are

So badly out of tune!

Heaven indeed be praised, I live on the best of terms,

With le père Duval, the singing skullcap,

He the strict conformist, I the non-conformist

He lets me say “Oh Shit!”, I let him say “Amen”,

In agreement with him, must I write in the press

That one night I surprised him at my girl friend’s knees,

Singing a flat, unvaried chant in slushing tones,

The while she was searching for fleas in his bald patch

{Refrain:}

Trumpets of

The Goddess “Fame”,

You are

So badly out of tune!

So with whom, good heavens!
must I go to bed

To make the goddess with hundred mouths talk of me?

Must a female celebrity, a famous star

Come and take my guitar’s place to lie in my arms?

To get the people and the gutter press excited

Who really wants to lend me her popular butt?

Who’s going to want to let me, au naturel,

Climb around for a bit on her mount of Venus?

{Refrain:}

Trumpets of

The Goddess “Fame”,

You are

So badly out of tune!

Would they sound out more strong, these trumpets of the Gods ,

If, like each and everyone, I was a bit gay,

If I swayed with my hips more like a young woman

And suddenly took on the walk of a gazelle

But I’m not aware that these jokers gain from it Playing the game of
love while inverting the roles,

That this would add one single ounce more to my fame.

The crime of same sex love, today, no longer pays.

{Refrain:}

Trumpets of

The Goddess “Fame”,

You are

So badly out of tune!

After this review of the thousand and one tricks

Which are sure to earn the honours of the papers

I prefer to keep to my first way of doing things

And scratch my stomach, as ever, while singing songs

If the public wishes, I get them out quick time.

If not, I put them all back into my guitar,

Refusing to pay over the ransom of fame

Upon my laurel sprig, I sleep like a dormouse

{Refrain:}

Trompettes

De la Renommée,

Vous êtes

Bien mal embouchées !

TRANSLATION NOTES

1) Bucolic= Pastoral . (The
adjective ‘bucolic’ is derived from the Greek word for herdsmen). Brassens felt
at home in a country setting, as we see in other songs of his- e.g. “Auprès demon arbre”. By using this adjective “bucolic”, he reminds us that his attitude
has a long, honourable literary tradition dating back to the poets of Greece
and Rome

2) Je dormais comme un loir. There are two
expressions based on “sleeping” in this line. Dormir comme un loir= to sleep like a dormouse.
“S’endormir sur ses lauriers” to rest on one’s laurels.

3) Trompettes… mal embouchées. Brassens
is making a play on words. “Emboucher la trompette” is to put the trumpet to
your lips to play – in this case wrongly. The idiom “Mal embouché » means
speaking coarsely like the English to bad mouth.

4) la Renommée,= the Goddess of Fame.
Wikipedia tells us PHEME or OSSA was the goddess or spirit (daimon)
of rumour, report and gossip. She was also, by extension, the dual spirit of
fame and good repute in a positive sense, and infamy and scandal in the bad.

In
Greek mythology, Pheme (Greek: Φήμη, Roman equivalent: Fama) was the
personification of fame and renown, her favour being fame, her wrath being
scandalous rumors.

5) Pénélope was the wife of Ulysses, faithful to
him in his long absence. Brassens has a song with this name as its title. Brassens is not afraid to admit that he had consoled
a few lonely Penelopes.

6) défrayer la chronique = to be in the news- to
be in the limelight

7) Battre l' tambour. The translation of town
crier is tambour de ville because a little drum was used to draw attention,
where the English used a bell

8) Mes quat' voluptés : This is a play on words
from the phrase « Laisser faire à quelqu’un ses quatre voluptés » = to leave
some-one a free hand to do what they like. Alone, the plural noun “voluptés”
means sensual pleasures. Ses quartiers refers to the quarters on her noble coat
of arms, but has a double meaning.

9) l'air des lampions : This is a chant made by
a group of people, which should really be three syllables repeated on the same
note. For example, where impatient English people will sing repeatedly the one
line: “Why are we waiting?” the French will chant Com-men-cez.., Com-men-cez….
The chant here is shaped by the alliteration of four m sounds.

10) morpions - are pubic lice

11) le Père Duval - Brassens has just said that
he should not be expected to reveal secrets of his friends and colleagues. In
this verse, he does just that. Le Père Duval (1918- 1984) was a Jesuit priest,
who was a gifted songwriter and solo guitarist. He appeared on the same stages
as Georges Brassens and was sometimes known as “Brassens in a cassock”. He was
very popular in the 1950s and 1960s and gave more than 3,000 concerts in 44
countries. Under the strain of his professional career he became an alcoholic
and had great difficulty in overcoming this addiction. Brassens mischievously
tells us he also had another weakness of the flesh.

12) Catéchumène – As this means some-one who is
receiving religious instruction it does not apply to a Jesuit priest , but
Brassens likes the play on the word with “énergumène” which means a rowdy
person.

13) La mélopée means monotonous chant, Susurrer
means to whisper. The onomatopoeia of the two French words perfectly conveys
the action.

14) This line is intended to give a description
of the relative positions of the man and woman rather than give an exact
explanation of their activity.

15) une étoile, une star, - as the two words
have the same meaning, one noun only is required in the translation.

16) Tapette- Collins Robert tells us that this
equates in English to « poof » or « queer ». I am reluctant to use this as the
translation would, in contemporary political correctness, make him guilty of a
hate crime. As an admirer of Brassens’ character, I am absolutely certain that
he did not hate homosexuals. As he says in this same line, homosexuality is all
around. A large number of the leading figures in entertainment and the arts
were homosexual. At some concerts, the great French songwriter and singer,
Charles Trenet was on the same bill as Brassens. What was different in those
days was that homosexuality was a criminal offence. Brassens cynically tells those
who might have him act as if he had such inclinations to arouse the clamour of
the press, that homosexuality does not pay. It is true that Brassens had on
some subjects strong feelings that could be represented by the unsympathetic as
hatred, but these were directed at people with power who oppressed their
fellows. Those vulnerable people he refers to in this verse do not come into
that category

17) plus-value is a word used in commerce =
increase in value, appreciation.

18) Le crime pédérastique. In the 1950s the word
pédéraste was used to describe a homosexual. The homosexual act was not
decriminalised in France until the 4th August 1982.

2 comments:

About this sentence : "Pour fair' parler un peu la déesse aux cent bouches ?" - You add an "?", so I suppose you ask for readers opinion about this sentence.

"La déesse aux cent bouches" is an image for what in French we call "la presse, les medias", the newpapers. The global meaning of the sentence is "to make the newspapers talking (about me), must I ...."

About Me

Notes on the classics of French literature. During my years of teaching, I wrote thousands of pages for my students. Preferring not to discard all these years of work, I am posting them on the Internet as a resource for teachers and students and I am using my blogsite as the portal in order to give access to the individual books.
During my university course, I was an Assistant for one year in Arras and my nostalgia for Georges Brassens stems from these happy days- now long gone- when his songs were first being recorded and he was all the rage among the student surveillants.
When I opened this Blogsite many years ago, I used David Barfield, my maternal family name, as my Internet alias. My actual name is David Yendley and if any of my past students come across this site, I send them my best wishes. They were great company to be with.